To provide business-oriented legal counsel to small businesses operated by low-income entrepreneurs and to non-profit organizations in underserved St. Louis communities, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri recently launched the Community Economic Development Program (CED Program).
The CED Program will provide clients with a full range of business legal services such as one-on-one legal representation, legal workshops, business legal clinics, legal trainings and legal audits and checkups. Examples of legal matters the CED Program addresses include entity formation, employment, intellectual property, corporate governance, real estate, zoning compliance, contracts, tax matters, franchising and mergers.
Leading the program is attorney Laurie Hauber, who was hired by LSEM last fall to launch and manage the initiative. Prior to joining LSEM, Hauber served as the professor of the Community & Economic Development Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School. She also founded and directed the Boston-based Economic Justice Project, a program similar to the new LSEM project.
“Having the appropriate knowledge and expertise in these areas are essential in launching a program such as this,” said Jim Guest, Director of LSEM’s Volunteer Lawyers Program who is assisting Hauber.
With many low-income entrepreneurs lacking funds and facing other barriers, their enterprises are often at risk because they do not have the sufficient resources to pay for basic legal assistance about liability risks, corporate governance matters, tax treatment and employment issues.
“Community economic development is critical to eliminating poverty in low-income communities,” said Hauber. “There’s also a general lack of awareness about the importance of legal assistance in protecting these businesses and non-profits. Our program meets the need in an innovative, cost-effective way.”
While the project is new to St. Louis, more than 80 pro bono business law programs already exist across the country including Chicago, Kansas City, Austin, Texas, Washington, D.C, Atlanta, Detroit, Boston and New York.
LSEM’s CED works closely with other community partners, such as St. Louis County Economic Council Business Enterprise Centers; the Small Business Technology and Development Center; Justine Petersen; the BEGIN New Venture Center at St. Patrick Center; International Institute Community Development Corporation; Grace Hill Women’s Business Center; Center for Acceleration of African American Businesses; Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University; Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance; and the Nonprofit Resources Center.
In addition, St. Louis University Law School and Washington University Law School are involved in the project.
Through LSEM’s Volunter Lawyers Program, the CED Program is also working with law firms, corporate in-house counsel departments, and solo practioners who work on a pro bono basis. To date, seven law firms are already handling client cases with two other firms teaching community workshops under the CED Program.
Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, a United Way member agency, is an independent, non-profit organization that has provided high quality legal assistance in civil cases to the low-income community for more than 50 years.